Federal immigration officials have revoked the visas of 27 cruise ship employees and sent them back to their home countries following allegations involving child sexual abuse imagery, authorities announced Friday.
The enforcement action took place in late April when U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents boarded eight different cruise vessels and identified the workers, primarily Filipino nationals, for allegedly receiving, possessing, transporting, distributing, or viewing illegal images of child sexual abuse.
Officials terminated the visas of all 27 individuals and arranged for their immediate deportation to their countries of origin, according to the agency’s Friday statement.
Authorities declined to specify which cruise ships were inspected, the locations where the operations occurred, or the reasoning behind targeting those particular vessels. The agency also did not indicate whether any cruise passengers were believed to be victims and stated no further details would be provided.
At least some of the targeted ships had made port calls in San Diego.
Disney Cruise Line issued a response confirming their cooperation with law enforcement. “The company has a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior and fully cooperated with law enforcement. While the majority of these individuals were not from our cruise line, those who were are no longer with the company,” the company stated.
Advocacy organizations representing immigrant and worker rights have been unsuccessfully seeking information about the affected employees and the circumstances surrounding the enforcement operation. Benjamin Prado from Unión del Barrio said his organization held a press conference Tuesday in San Diego after receiving only a standard response from Customs and Border Protection.
Prado noted that the detailed statement later provided to media outlets this week was not posted on the agency’s official website, arguing such information should be publicly accessible.
The advocacy leader expressed concerns about potential surveillance activities that may have preceded the workers’ detention and questioned whether proper due process procedures were followed. He acknowledged his organization’s skepticism regarding information released by agencies like Customs and Border Protection.
“At this point, we doubt, we question their claims and so we do want to follow up with some of these workers to find out exactly what took place,” Prado explained.
Customs and Border Protection maintains that criminal charges are not necessary for visa revocation proceedings.
